Everyone wants to be loved and to have that sense of belonging.
It’s very rare for a human being to want to be isolated. It does happen, but most of us enjoy the sense of being part of something of value.
One of the greatest values to God is family. In His relationship with His creation He is known to us, under the new covenant, as God the Father. Abraham was known as ‘the friend of God’ in Genesis (James 2:23). Jesus, who was sent by the Father, is known as both the Son of God and the Son of Man.
Sons and daughters
God calls His people his sons and daughters. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” He tells the Galatians, referring to those who have received Jesus as Lord and Saviour (Gal.3:26).
He goes on, “because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Gal.36-7).”
“I will be a Father to you,
2 Corinthians 6:18
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty.”
Family. We are called into the family of God.This is where we belong.
He sends forth the Spirit of His Son, Jesus, into our hearts. From there we cry out “Abba, Father!” It’s through the new birth, which takes place when we receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour, that we receive a new heart and a new spirit which bears witness with the Holy Spirit that we are indeed born of God who is now our Heavenly Father.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Romans 8:14-17
We are brought into sonship. We belong to His family as blood kin through the blood of Jesus. We become partakers of the divine nature with God our Father through the Holy Spirit.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:2-4
So there is sonship and there is partnership. We are partakers with Him in His very nature through the Holy Spirit. The word for ‘partakers’ is koinōnos, which means ‘a sharer,’ ‘an associate,’ ‘a partner.’ It is companionship at its highest level.
He has drawn us into covenant with Him and all of the promises He has made to His saints through His Son and by His Spirit are available to us by faith through this association. We belong.
He paid the price
There is another meaning to this idea of belonging. We belong to Him because He has bought us with a price. We were in slavery to sin, imprisoned by our dependency on the sin nature, but, through the cross of Christ, we were released from captivity.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
There was a ransom price on our heads, which was the blood of an innocent man (1Tim.2:5). But none was righteous, so no blood was pure, until Jesus, who lived a sinless life on earth, was able to pay that price, who shed His blood so that we could be made free (Eph.2:13).
Then, when we heard the good news–the Gospel that was preached that Jesus was sent to set the captives free–and we responded positively to the offer of grace and salvation (Eph.2:6), we were released from the chains of captivity (Luk.4:18). From then on we belong to God.
But He doesn’t take us into His community as slaves. No. He adopts us as sons and daughters. Because we receive the Son of God, by faith we become sons and daughters of the Almighty.
We now belong in two senses; one, because He paid the price for our release from slavery to sin, and; two, because, by grace through faith, He birthed us again into sonship (John 1:12-13) and gave us of His Spirit so that we could cry out, “Abba, Father!”
Faith in Jesus is the first step to belonging. Confessing Him as Lord takes us in (Rom.10:10). From there on, we belong in the most loving community of faith that has ever existed.
